Medco Health Solutions Inc., Express
Scripts Inc. and other pharmacy-benefit managers must offer
Medicare patients new discount cards that can be used in
drugstores and not by mail order alone, the U.S. government said.
The companies, along with insurers and pharmacies, next week
will be told how to apply to participate in the program created by
the signing of a law on Monday to overhaul Medicare, the Health
and Human Services Department said in an e-mailed release.
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“We take the use of the Medicare name very seriously and we
will approve only reputable plans that will provide significant
discounts” to seniors and individuals with disabilities, said
Tom Scully, Medicare’s top official, in the release.
The plan is designed to give discounts of as much as 25
percent on drugs for Medicare’s elderly and disabled patients who
pay a $30 annual fee. The program expires in 2006 when Medicare
will offer its 41 million beneficiaries expanded prescription-drug
coverage through private insurers such as Aetna Inc.
In January, Woonsocket-based CVS Corp, Walgreen Co., and other pharmacies
blocked a similar Bush administration proposal in court, arguing
that patients would be steered into mail-order programs and denied
contact with pharmacists. The Pharmaceutical Care Management
Association, which represents Medco and other companies, appealed
to drugstores and pharmacists not to sue again.
Bloomberg News
